"It is going to happen more and more where we get increasing numbers of our doctors, both the new ones coming out but also the more experienced ones, going out and doing part of their training in our rural and remote areas," he said.

"In three to four years when they've finished their courses, we'll have a huge pool of doctors to call on."

It's a fundamental human yearning to be a part of something bigger than one's self, and maybe that's what drove my mate Ash to die, far from home, in a bloody foreign war against Islamic State, writes C August Elliott.